InvestorPlace’s 10 Best Stocks of 2013: Mid-Year Standings

It's a tight race, including two ties in the top five

#1: Intel

InvestorPlace Editor Jeff Reeves squeezed into the top five after the first quarter, then kept on climbing to the very top in the months that followed.

The pick behind the outperformance: not-so-sexy tech staple Intel (NASDAQ:INTC). After what Reeves described as “two painful showing in this annual stock-picking contest,” he purposely went with “a stable and undervalued blue chip instead of a long shot.

So far, the strategy has been working. Investors began piling into the dividend stock back in April, when Intel reported PC sales that didn’t plummet quite as dramatically as many were expecting in Q1.

Things have cooled off in the past month, but not dramatically considering the general flee from income stocks … and not enough for Intel to relinquish its six-month crown.

As of this writing, Alyssa Oursler did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.